Thread: A Good One

But surely these two sides of the bevel are not meeting at a perfect point?
My tiny brain sees it like this:-
We are carving microscopic grooves into the sides of the bevel which create serrations at the edge. Since we are using stones and not a "knife serrating machine" these teeth are not even that uniform. As we progress through finer grits we make those serrations finer: more T.P.I. so to speak, getting closer to the fabled "fin".
I cannot see how "sharpness" stops at 1200k, 4000k or whatever and anything higher is "refining the edge".
In my mind we are still sharpening, but how this affects the shave is a different matter. Very fine teeth surely are more comfortable and smooth to shave with than spiky!

The "too sharp" thing reminds me of my mother and her fear of sharp knives. She struggles along with blades that will just about cut if forced through the ingredient or if she uses an extremely vigorous sawing action.
I offered to sharpen the knives for her, but no, they were fine. "I don't like them too sharp, I might cut myself", she says! After much persuasion and explaining how forcing blunt knives through things is far more dangerous than carefully and gently using a properly sharpened knife (along with reminding her that she is a big girl now ) I was allowed to sharpen ONE for her ("don't make it too sharp" she said!!). That knife is now for "special use" only, and has sat unused in a drawer ever since!!

After you come off of the 1000 setting the bevel look at the edge under a microscope and you'll see it's pretty rough and uneven. AS you progress through various hones the lines smooth up a bit and get closer together which to me means sharper. At some point yes you are smoothing the edge and have most of the sharpening done.
It's not as sharp as it will get coming off the 1000 though.